Investing

Can Facebook Become the Market’s Volume Leader?

Mark_Zuckerberg_2008
Source: Brian Solis, via Wikimedia Commons
On the day that Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) came public last year, more than 580 million shares of the company’s stock changed hands. No other trading day since then has even come close except for Thursday, July 25th, the day after the social network released its second-quarter results and more than 350 million shares changed hands.

In the 7 trading days since then, more than 100 million Facebook shares have changed hands on 5 of those days and more than 70 million were traded on the other two. So far today the company has traded nearly 50 million shares, near its 3-month daily average of 50.6 million shares a day. Could Facebook be on its way to Number 1?

Probably not, unless things change dramatically. Facebook, for all its activity, trades less than half as many as Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) which moves 124.6 million shares a day. No other financial institution is close. Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) volumes are roughly even with Facebook. No other phone company is close. Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) averages nearly 57 million shares in daily volume.

None of these, however, trades at around $38 a share, and only BofA trades above $10.

Drug giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) trades nearly 60 million shares a day on average at a price around $30 a share. But no other drug company is in the running.

Which tech companies are close to Facebook? Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) trades an average of around 48.2 million shares a day, Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) trades 40.7 million shares daily, and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) trades about 41 million shares a day. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) averages a mere 12.6 million shares moved daily.

Having already passed every other tech stock already, Facebook is gaining on Sirius and has Pfizer in its sights. BofA’s position looks secure though. For now.

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